4:46pm UK, Sunday November 02, 2008

Gordon Brown has warned that the world must not allow a repeat of the Rwandan genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Crowd at the entrance to a refugee camp in Goma, DRC

The Prime Minister spoke out in the Saudi capital Riyadh, during his Gulf states tour, amid mounting fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in the central African state.

The current conflict in the DRC has its roots in the genocide 14 years ago in neighbouring Rwanda.

At that time, more than a million people were killed when Hutu extremists turned on their Tutsi neighbours.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in a joint statement with with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, said the Congolese government needs to take “proper command” of its forces.

The politicians, both in the DRC to try to help find a diplomatic solution to the renewed conflict between rebel and government forces, added: “There is no excuse for turning away.”

The envoys said the current ceasefire must be bolstered and routes must be secured for the delivery of aid.

Stopping short of saying British troops should be sent to the DRC, they said: “The international community must support humanitarian delivery, strengthen the United Nations force, and help promote and enforce agreements.”

At the same time, they added that the Rwandan government needed to take “active steps” to help end the crisis.

However, Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown has already disclosed that contingency plans were being drawn up for the deployment of a European Union force – including UK troops – to support the UN.

British forces are already stretched fighting on two fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some 250,000 people are thought have fled their homes in recent weeks since the breakdown of a UN-brokered ceasefire in the DRC.

Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda has said he returned to arms in order to protect his Tutsi community from Rwandan Hutus who fled to DRC after carrying out the genocide of 1994.

However his own forces – on the outskirts of the regional capital Goma after DRC government troops fled – have also acquired a reputation for murder, rape and looting.

The Rwandans have been accused of supporting Gen Nkunda – a claim they deny – while the rebels in turn accuse the Congolese government of backing the Hutu militias.